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Stone: Beckham ‘Absolutely Pressing’ At The Plate

CHICAGO (WSCR) After having a great rookie season, Chicago White Sox infielder Gordon Beckham has struggled to get off to good starts in each of the last two seasons.

Through the first 45 games of the 2011 campaign, the 21-year old Atlanta native has a .210 batting average, three home runs, 13 runs batted in and a .263 on-base percentage.

“He’s really struggling,” Steve Stone said on the Boers and Bernstein Show. “Again, the good thing about it is, he’s played errorless ball at second base. He has this very long, by Major League standards, streak of errorless games, so he hasn’t taken his bat out to the field with him. But he’s like everyone else, very concerned about the number of strike outs, very concerned about the fact that he can’t lay off the high fastball. And when you don’t lay off the high fastball, when you’re swinging at balls out of the zone, which is a sign of a guy really struggling, really pressing. That’s what happens. You start rolling down a hill and sometimes it’s very difficult to stop it.

“Now last year, we saw the same thing happen and then all of a sudden the light turned on and he started hitting everything in sight, and then obviously got hurt and lost the rest of the year. We’re just hoping the light turns on sooner rather than later. And I know nobody is hoping more than Gordon. But right now he’s absolutely pressing.”